Shadow Chancellor gets a Black Country insight
The Richardson family welcomed MP Rachel Reeves, the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, to its Oldbury headquarters for a roundtable discussion with regional business leaders.
The Leeds West MP was visiting the region last week for a series of meetings and engagements, and made the Richardson business roundtable her first port of call.
Carl Richardson, who chaired the session, said: “We were delighted to welcome Rachel to our office and hear her set out Labour’s economic strategy and views on engaging with business, as well as having the opportunity to challenge and share key thoughts and concerns from a range of business leaders.
"Good engagement and collaborative working between the business community and politicians from all parties is essential if we are to create the conditions for businesses to thrive in the period ahead, and today’s session with the Shadow Chancellor was a great example of that engagement in action.”
Mrs Reeves was in the Black Country on Thursday to visit Richardsons in Oldbury and Westfield Sportscars in Kingswinford.
She said: "Labour looking inwards and focusing on issues that are not mainstream for people in Dudley, Walsall, West Bromwich and Wolverhampton has resulted in the loss of some fantastic members of Parliament for this region.
"I'm determined under the leadership of Keir, that we get the Labour Party back on track."
She conceded the party still had a "lot of rebuilding to do" after taking a pasting in the 2019 general election and recent council elections, which saw the Conservatives take a firm grip across vast swathes of the region.
"We are making progress but we still have a lot more work to do to win back that trust that we've lost over a number of years," Mrs Reeves said.
